GreaterGood Family of Websites Raised $6.7 Million for Charity in 2018

Elizabeth Nelson

By Elizabeth Nelson

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If you thought your click or purchase was just a tiny drop in the bucket, think again. It’s all thanks to people like you and the small everyday actions you take that we’ve been able to do some amazing things to help people in 2018. Together, the GreaterGood family of websites raised $6.7 million for charity last year!

One way you might have helped us fund some amazing projects this year is by clicking to give on any one of our sites. Clicks on website buttons in 2018 raised funding for the value of 413 mammograms for women in need, over 19.5 million cups of food for people around the world, and over 68,000 meals for U.S. veterans. Your clicks also generated funds for the value of over 1,200 hours of therapy for kids on the spectrum, nearly 125,000 books for kids, and 1,776 hours of research to help fund a cure for diabetes and Alzheimer’s.

Or perhaps shopping to give is more your style. If you made a purchase on one of our online stores in 2018, you contributed to funding the value of 1,460 mammograms, over 3.7 million cups of food, 227,212 meals for veterans, 4,800 kids’ books, 824 hours of Autism research and therapy, and 300 hours of diabetes and Alzheimer’s research.

In 2018, the GreaterGood family showed that it will be there when it matters; over $313,000 was raised to help people and pets affected by devastating hurricanes, and over $221,000 to aid survivors of the California wildfires. Another $55,000 was raised to assist victims of the Indonesia tsunami and Hawaii volcano natural disasters.

Over $61,000 was raised to help build tiny homes for veterans and their animal companions, bringing them in out of the cold; and another $22,000 to care for our nation’s active and retired military and police dogs, often reuniting these pets after their service with their beloved handlers.

Photo: Food Recovery NetworkLeft: Student volunteers at University of Maryland, College Park delivered over 360 pounds of food recovered from 251 North Diner to Christian Life Center during their first recovery event of the semester.Right: Volunteers serve meals prepared with food recovered from Saint Martin’s University to community members at The Community Kitchen.

We can’t share every heartwarming story you helped us make a reality in 2018, but here are a few from the highlight reel:

Breast Care for Washington, who used GreaterGood funds to provide 67 mammograms to uninsured women in 2018, submitted this story from a patient named Roberta.

“Last year was a difficult one for me and my family. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, we lost our health insurance. Because I have a history of breast cancer in my family, I really wanted to get my mammogram done. I tried to find a medical facility or program that would let me get a free mammogram, but the only programs I could find would make me wait months for care and didn’t treat me very nicely. Then one of my neighbors told me about Breast Care for Washington, which is located close to where I live. I didn’t even know they were there and now they could be saving my life. The staff there were warm and welcoming, and they understood I didn’t have the money to pay for my care but took me anyway. Being able to get my mammogram without having health insurance gave me great peace of mind. I was so relieved to learn that I didn’t have breast cancer and to learn about Breast Care for Washington in my community that I decided to join them this October in the neighborhood’s annual Breast Cancer Awareness walk. And now I’ll do my part to let women know about the importance of getting their annual mammogram and that Breast Care for Washington is there to help you, whether you have insurance or not.”

Photo: Breast Care for Washington

GreaterGood donations also made their way to Thailand, where they’ve helped 1,521 women from Thailand and nearby Burma safely give birth to their babies at the Mae Tao Clinic.

Moe Htet Htet and her husband are from a small village in Irrawaddy Division, Burma. There is no health clinic for the roughly 100 households in the village, and the economic state of the area is very poor. The couple, therefore, moved to Thailand in search of better jobs. When Moe Htet Htet began to experience dizziness and vomiting, it was the Mae Tao Clinic she went to for a diagnosis and found out she was pregnant. She was provided with health information and prenatal care and came to all of her appointments religiously, despite the high cost of getting to the clinic by car or motorbike. It was certainly better than going to a closer Thai clinic, because she had no health insurance to help her afford the medical bills, and she would have had to confront a language barrier.

On August 28, 2018, Moe Htet Htet safely delivered her first child, a son named Htet Warna Htun, in the Reproductive Health Inpatient Department (RHIPD) at the Mae Tao Clinic. There were no complications with the birth, and the child was born at a healthy weight of 7.05 pounds.

“I’m so happy that my baby was born healthy,” says Moe Htet Htet. “I can’t stop smiling whenever I see him. When I was attending the ANC visits, the staff were all kind and provided me with useful health education on nutrition, hygiene, etc. In addition to the staff at RHOPD, RHIPD staff also have taken good care of me before and after the delivery. Mae Tao Clinic is important to people like me who have no legal status in Thailand.”

Moe Htet Htet and her husband plan to return to Burma but will likely be back in three years or so, as they now hope to have a second child at the clinic.

Click “next” below for more ways GreaterGood donations helped people in 2018!

Elizabeth Nelson is a wordsmith, an alumna of Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, a four-leaf-clover finder, and a grammar connoisseur. She has lived in west Michigan since age four but loves to travel to new (and old) places. In her free time, she. . . wait, what’s free time?